One of the best new LGBTQ+ movies is Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, which stars Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran and Bowen Yang as a group of queer friends who try to pull off a straight wedding in order to keep their Korean friend in the America and pay for an IVF procedure. After I was floored by one particularly emotional scene between Minari Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung and newcomer Gi-Chan Han, I was even more amazed by what the director told me about the making of it. SPOILERS are ahead!
My favorite scene in the movie, which I gave four out of five stars in my The Wedding Banquet review, was when Min and his grandmother have a sweet moment of acceptance with one another where she realizes why staying in America among his friends is so important to him through his artwork. I literally cried watching the pair of family members talk about why found family is so important – especially to the queer community. When I asked Andrew Ahn about it, here’s what he said:
We had our first conversation with Yuh-Jung, she enjoyed the script, but she did say that the scene is not good enough yet. She said, this is an important moment between me and my grandson. It has to be great. And that was really inspiring because she believed in us as a team that we could do that.
As Ahn shared, when they were bringing Youn Yuh-Jung on, she liked the script, but just didn’t think this key scene was “good enough.” Sure, she could have outright turned it down, but the 77-year-old believed it could be better. The writer/director said that his cinematographer and the artist behind the patchwork also really helped flesh out the scene as well, but it sounds like the Minari Oscar winner really helped it reach new heights. As Ahn continued:
And then we showed Y-J the scene and she was like, ‘okay, now it's good’.
It sounds like Andrew Ahn offered a collaborative set, which mostly consisted of queer people, too. For example, Lily Gladstone also asked for her character to be from a Dwamish background in order to honor the indigenous community that lives in the movie’s setting of Washington, and she told us she hopes there’s a sequel to delve deeper into the culture.
During our interview with Youn Yuh-Jung, she also spoke to another change to the film she asked for. In her words:
Originally I was supposed to be the mother for that main character, but I suggested that I'm too old for that. He's 26 or something, that actor. So no, no, it's, let's change it to the grandmother, and then it will give you more layers. But it worked out good. And then [Gi-Chan Han] is brand new to me. I mean, he's working in Korea, but I haven't seen his work. But he was, I was leading him to the scene and then he followed me greatly. So we didn't have any problems. And when I saw it for the first time in Sundance, I told them, you did a great job.
I absolutely love how Youn Yuh-Jung brought her input into The Wedding Banquet, because those two details definitely made it even better. This only makes me more excited for the actress to next be part of the Beef Season 2 cast, which is coming to those with a Netflix subscription either later this year or 2026.
